Flashback Springfield: Washington Park’s early days were a bit bumpy

Should mutts get their own playground? That’s the current issue surrounding Washington Park today: whether to build a dog park there.

During the park’s early days — a little more than 100 years ago — its issues were quite different, even comical at times.

In fall 1900, the Springfield Pleasure Driveway and Park District bought the first parcel of land that became Washington Park; part of that land was already a private park by the same name.

“The tract, which is to be used for a park, or breathing spot, is one of the most handsome to be found in Illinois. Its natural scenery adds greatly to the effect, and natural springs are to be found here and there,“ stated the Oct. 10, 1900, Illinois State Register.

While the city continued to acquire land for the “breathing spot,” it began turning the initial parcels into a park in spring 1901.

On June 23, 1903, the Register announced that a band made from employees of the local watch factory would give two free summer concerts there. “The park board are in favor … but they say that the shrubbery is too low now and that they will arrange matters in the future.”

Why were low shrubs an issue for holding band concerts? The paper didn’t say. Was the board worried that the watch factory band stunk and low shrubs wouldn’t block its cacophony from the park’s well-off neighbors on a day that was generally reserved for solitude?

Three years later, the park board halted Sunday concerts in the park for two stated reasons. At that time, most people reached the park, which was outside of city limits, by riding the streetcar, but cars weren’t running to the park as often as they were supposed to, according to the July 11, 1906, Register. Perhaps as a result, people weren’t coming to the Sunday concerts.

But people must have been coming at other times, because the board voted unanimously to add a new feature — a police department. Eight policemen would start patrolling Springfield’s garden spot for a salary of $75 a month.

They might have come in handy the next year. One of Washington Park’s most celebrated features in its early days was its waterways. Visitors rented boats and rowed about its lagoon. Others waded or swam. “Bathing at Washington Park has become a popular fad, especially among the boys,” reported the Aug. 28, 1907, Register. “The bathers are a little careless about robing and disrobing in the open air. It seems only right and proper that the park board should invest a few cents in a tent … .”

Like a good neighbor?

About this time, golf was catching on here as a sport. Illini Country Club, which is adjacent to Washington Park, offered a golf course, but non-members were pushing for a public course on the park’s west end, which only featured a “figure eight driveway” and would soon have a greenhouse to grow plants for the park, according to the Nov. 6, 1908, Register.

The paper’s editor thought the issue struck at favoritism on the board. “Whether the park board will take (the golf course) matter up with enthusiasm is doubtful. It is comparatively easy to get the board to go to heavy expense to alter driveways and make other changes in the park to please owners of contiguous property who will be benefited thereby, and the board is usually enthusiastic in developing driveways for carriage owners and automobilists, but when it comes to giving space and money to people who just want space in the park and who have no vehicles, there is usually a prolonged grunt.” (Several years later, the park board opened a golf course at Bunn Park and it was so popular, it added another at Bergen Park.)

Illini Country Club proved a difficult neighbor for the park in 1914. Sewage from the club was “overflowing into the south branch (a stream that stretched from the club to the park) and entering Washington Park lake … . The condition of the lake at Washington Park is hourly becoming more and more unsanitary,” stated the July 19, 1914, Register.

Lake Springfield had not yet been constructed, so Washington Park was one of a few “swimming holes” for locals. “Washington Park lake is being used constantly by boating parties and swimmers, and the revenue from boat hire(s) figures up into hundreds of dollars monthly,” the Register reported.

The park board had been trying to get Illini to fix the problem, but “little consideration has been given the matter.” However, George M. Brinkerhoff Jr., then president of Illini, denied knowledge of the problem and said the board had not contacted the club about it. The park board had also sought help from the city, but “the matter was thrown back into the face of the board.”

Sewage running into the park’s lake from surrounding areas remained a problem for years to come.

Tara McClellan McAndrew is a Springfield native and award-winning writer who specializes in local history. She can be reached at features@sj-r.com.